Specifications

Based on the classic Optimist dinghy, the Opti Trainer is the perfect starter boat for children to learn to sail. Indeed, many an Olympic medallist started their sailing lives in Optimists.

Hartley Boats bring their experience and expertise in rotomoulding technology to bear on this classic design, producing a dinghy that is stable, cost-effective and almost bullet-proof. Young sailors need to be able to make mistakes with the minimum possible consequences, and the Opti Trainer is the perfect vessel in which to do so.

The Opti Trainer is designed for simplicity: a single sail, mainsheet, daggerboard, tiller – all the necessary controls that are common to all sailing dinghies with no complications.

At just 2.36 metres in length and weighing less than 40 kg, the Opti Trainer can be trailed or transported on a roof rack. Launching is easy on its clever folding launch trolley which folds up small enough to put in the boot of your car. Providing the gudgeon is protected (sitting on a couple of wooden blocks would be ideal), the Opti Trainer can be stored on end, so it is easy to keep in any garage space – the perfect solution when boat storage opportunities are at a premium.

Best of all, at less than 2.50 metres in length, the Opti Trainer does not need formal registeration in Switzerland, which means you can put it on the water the moment your new Opti arrives!

Our verdict: Small, robust, stable and lightweight, the rotomoulded Opti Trainer is the perfect start to a lifetime of sailing.